In today’s data-driven world, companies share the common goal of becoming smarter—to understand where market opportunities are, where supply chain bottlenecks are, and where process improvements can be made. This trend has been fueled by data science, which is now improving its own intelligence. Companies are achieving new levels of efficiency in data analysis that have an impact on their entire business thanks to astounding developments in artificial intelligence (AI) and its sub-segments machine learning and deep learning. The next ten years will see significant growth as more industries adopt AI; by 2025, the market for AI software is expected to be worth close to $90 billion. Data scientists and business managers alike are drawn to AI’s presence because they want to automate number crunching in order to make their companies more intelligent overall.

AI Advances in Rapid Time

You can typically find a leading indicator of a market segment’s growth trajectory by following the money. Investors and venture capital (VC) firms are constantly searching for opportunities for significant growth, and they are currently discovering one in the AI industry. According to a recent Forbes article, there have been 14 times as many active AI startups since 2000, and VC firms have invested 6 times as much in them. Jobs requiring AI expertise have increased 4.5 times since 2013, and businesses that create and use AI applications are on a similar growth trajectory.

IT Is a Significant AI Benefit

It should come as no surprise that the IT organisation, which deals exclusively with data, is perhaps the department that will benefit the most from AI’s capabilities. According to a Harvard Business Review study, between 34 and 44 percent of global companies they surveyed are utilising AI to assist with employee technical support issues (imagine a smart response system to streamline common questions and troubleshoot others), automate internal system enhancements (machine codes can be used to calculate where bottlenecks can be fixed), and ensure that workers only use technology from approved vendors (picture a smart authorization engine that keeps up with daily updates and knows vendor subsidiaries and partners).

However, AI is also cross-sector.

Where else is AI settling? Image recognition and tagging, patient data processing, localization and mapping, predictive maintenance, anticipating and thwarting security threats, and intelligent hiring and HR management methods are a few of the examples of AI in the enterprise that are most frequently used. However, it appears that marketing and sales operations are where adoption is most prevalent. Here, smart data use and the capacity to learn from interpersonal interactions can lead to significant financial gains. According to a Statista global survey, 87% of current AI adopters said they were using or considering using AI for e-mail marketing and sales forecasting.

While technology can sometimes automate sales forecasting to a certain extent, it can be significantly enhanced by an AI agent that tracks and responds to customer interactions and shifting market patterns. Through more precise targeting and the creation of content for different audiences, email marketers can also simulate one-to-one marketing.

The final result is also crucial. According to McKinsey, businesses that invest in infrastructure to support AI initiatives and reap the benefits see a three to fifteen percentage point increase in profit margin. The industries with the highest increases in profit margins as a result of AI adoption are those in healthcare, finance, and professional services.